Technological Field
This disclosure relates to operation of autonomous vehicles. More specifically, this disclosure relates to devices and systems for retrofitting vehicles for autonomous or remote operation.
Related Art
There is a need for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) for situations considered too dangerous for the drivers of these vehicles. For example, Truck Mounted Attenuators (TMAs), highway safety vehicles that carry an impact attenuator unit, place the safety driver in danger in the event the TMA is struck by an errant vehicle such as a semi-trailer truck. Operating such a vehicle in a leader/follower configuration would remove the driver from the TMA and place him in a separate and safer lead vehicle. The military also has a need for UGVs for various applications involving urban warfare, explosive ordnance removal, live fire training exercises, etc. Unmanned military vehicles can lower operating costs, eliminate expensive armor plating as protection against improvised explosive devices (IED), and reduce the incidence of vehicle accidents caused by driver fatigue.
Unmanned vehicles can be implemented through the use of drive-by-wire servo mechanisms that can be controlled remotely by a human operator, or as fully autonomous vehicles via the addition of advanced sensor packages and computerized guidance algorithms.